Wednesday, April 4, 2012

A short zombie tale from long ago for you I hope you enjoy

It had all
started when Mt St Helens erupted years ago. A parasite living deep in the
fiery bowels of the volcano was expelled along with the magma and gasses. This
parasite had been dormant since the time of the dinosaurs and no one knew of its
existence until it started using humans as its host. It started its rein of
terror by invading the bodies found dead along the side of the highway. It
realized quickly that the cold lifeless corpses of animals made unfulfilling
hosts. They wanted something more intelligent, something larger so that they
could breed and transfer their young out into the world. They came across a
pre-school.

The children
were out playing during their recess when the parasites invaded the playground.
The kids never even saw it coming. One second little Mary Sue Greene was
playing hopscotch the next she was groaning and shrieking. The teacher on guard
watching the kids immediately ran to her and called into his walkie-talkie for
an ambulance. It would have been the perfect thing to do if Mary was ill.
Unfortunately Mary wasn’t ill; she was deceased. The creature that took over her
body pushed the soul/being/human that was once Mary into the universe and
claimed the body as its own. It buried
itself into her brain and thoroughly enjoyed using her eyes to view the world
and her tiny feet to walk.

It had never had
to walk before, always relying on air currents to move. As it mastered the fine
art of walking and using the girl’s arms it looked like Mary Sue was having a
seizure. The adult attempted to restraint the girl but the thing that had taken
over the child hissed at him, gnashing her teeth and slavering like a pitbull.
The teacher called again on the radio asking for some help. That was when
little Brian Dobkins attacked the teacher from behind. The sweet blonde haired
boy ripped Mr. Carmichael’s left arm off as easily as it were tissue paper
instead of living tissue. The blood spurted from the severed brachial artery
and a sweet coppery redolence filled the air.

The parasites
remembered how hungry they were and they steered the little bodies under their
control towards the owner of the deliciously scented liquid. Ten children fell
upon Randy Carmichael; their teeth biting and tearing, their hands grasping and
ripping his flesh. As the parasites swallowed the gobbets of flesh belonging to
2002’s teacher of the year they realized how much they enjoyed the taste and
feeling of the thick chucks of salty sweet flesh as it rode down their throats
filling the hosts’ tiny stomachs. The parasites were disappointed when they realized
the children’s tummy’s were too small to hold much more blood and flesh. They
attempted to unburrow themselves but found they were unable to leave this host.
Nature abhors a vacuum and since the creatures had ousted the previous bodies
occupants they were stuck in the tiny flesh suits. They cried and screeched but
no matter what they did they were stuck. Their thoughts then centered on
reproduction.

A self
replicating species, the parasite began laying and fertilizing eggs in the
folds of the human’s brain. Both the parasites and their eggs were too small
for human eyes to see. The principal came out to check on Mr. Carmichael and
Mary Sue. To his unfortunate surprise the horde of children fell upon him snapping
and manducating. The flesh didn’t stay down long as the tiny tummies of the
hosts were too small to hold such delectable bounty. As the infected children
vomited up pieces of the poor man they wished their offspring better host
bodies than they had found. They passed on the knowledge that they would be
stuck in the bodies they infected to their eggs.

While the eggs were
being incubated, the parasite ridden children had been separated and contained.
The CDC had been brought in to explain why the little kids of Good Morning Pre-school
had turned cannibal. They found some of the parasite’s eggs embedded in a slice
of brain tissue they had cut from a little boy’s brain when he stopped moving
and expired suddenly. As they watched under the microscope the eggs hatched and
the room was cleared and locked down. The rest of the children were gathered
and placed into a similar room. Both were airtight and nothing was allowed to
escape. For three weeks the CDC team waited and watched as one by one the
children’s corpses began rotting. They made the mistake of believing the
parasites to be dead. As is usual with humans they set their own stupidly
erroneous parameters upon the deadly parasites.

When the man in
charge of the Zombie Project opened the door to the containment room he was
suited up and believed himself secure. The door whooshed open and thousands of
unseen parasites flooded the building. They didn’t care what level protection
the suits were they bored through the rubber and plastic until they reached the
soft flesh of the humans below. They liked the bodies they pirated and used
them well. As the new horde shambled from the building they looked for more
people. More yummy, delicious people. Some preferred the salty taste of the
brains and some liked the sweet breads best, but all enjoyed the thick sinewy
flesh and hot, savory blood.

The four hundred
employees of the CDC were now basically mindless creatures with ravenous
appetites. As they opened the outer doors they let their fellow parasites out
to find bodies of their own. As they reproduced they learned in time that their
children could be taught to head for the mouth of the host to be released into
the world through the host’s saliva. This meant that they did not have to die
for their off spring to flourish. It also meant learning some measure of self-control
as they could only bite a human once in order to implant the young ones. It was
hard to suppress the instinct to rend the soft skin and eat it, but as always
the urge to procreate outweighed the insatiable hunger and the yearning for
flesh.

As time went on
the horde grew larger and the parasites lived longer. They started choosing
their hosts carefully for fear they’d be stuck in an loathful host. As time
marched on; the aimless horde started becoming more and more like a family.
They began watching out for each other and each others’ larvae. If they saw a
zombie about to bite a human they knew to be unworthy they’d stop that zombie
and eat the human. Communication began and the horde became a living, thinking,
working entity. Unfortunately good food started to become scarce and the flabby
lay-abouts that populated the Northwest and the Midwest
became almost unpalatable to the horde. They scuffled southward in search of
more muscular and tastier bodies to add to the family as well as eat. As they
migrated they were unaware of the fact that the humans were starting to fight
back. The people in the armed forces discovered that sarin gas worked quite
well at killing the parasites and their eggs. A plan was put into place to
destroy the swarm as it moved.

The humans in
towns along the horde’s route were evacuated and the roads and towns
surrounding the legion of zombies were isolated save for the encroaching
beasties. The Air Force had been elected to fly over the horde and release a
large cloud of sarin gas. As the zombies died their corpses would be tossed
into a deep freeze containment unit in the unlikely event that any survived. It
was thought that they might have a problem with the cold. The solution had presented
itself when a stray zombie found it’s way into the meat locker at a grocery
store. It lasted not three minutes before it died. Nobody understood why the
cold killed them, they were just grateful that it did.

Hundreds of
thousands of bodies lay twitching in the streets, the sarin gas killing most
and leaving a few in a coma-like state. As the men in the rubber suits carried
the bodies into the deep freeze they were terrified of becoming infected
themselves. Once they finished hauling the corpses inside the containment area
they closed and sealed the door then rejoiced in their triumph. Humans all over
the world celebrated that night as every country forced their zombies into a
deep freeze of their own. It became a world wide independence day of sorts and
the festivities were grand. Fireworks were set off throughout the globe and
parties were held on almost every block in nearly every neighborhood. People
were dancing in the streets and whooping with joy. It was a grand time to be a
human.

Meanwhile the
parasites waited in the cold. One day the humans curiosity would cause them to
open the door and those that had adapted to the cold would rise to infiltrate
and devour human flesh once again. They had agreed to start small and begin
with animals. As they acquired the ability to communicate telepathically with
each other all over the world the parasites waited for the day when the humans
would begin their own demise. They were so excited to plan their escape and
dominion over the Earth. The entire time they were held captive they plotted
and dreamed. As they talked to each other wordlessly they realized they could
unlock the memories and thoughts inside their host brains. The knowledge gained
around the world was immense and they shared it with each other. As they laid
in wait for the humans to accidentally set them free they grew excited at the
possibilities of their future. They had never realized how quickly their time
would come. Most assumed they’d have to wait a century or more. To find that
they’d only have to wait weeks would come as both a surprise and a treat.

His name was Ned
McCauley, he was a janitor at the base where the original freezer was. He
always thought the giant aircraft hangar being turned into cold storage was a neat
idea. He just wished he could peek in and see what the bodies looked like. He
wondered about them a lot the few weeks he was on the base. He queried; were
they blue? Were there snotcicles hanging from each corpse’s nose? Would they
try to attack and eat him? Ned McCauley never realized he’d be going down in
history when he turned the freezer doorknob. The bodies were too frozen for the
parasites to move but they were able to allow the young ones out through the
nostrils. When he slammed the door on the hangar Ned was sure everything was
okay. He would find out a few months later that he had allowed a dozen nearly
invisible parasites their freedom. No one except Ned knew he was the one who
set the beasties free. When he realized what he had done he painted his kitchen
wall brain matter grey. As far as the parasites went, it didn’t take long for
the offspring to return for their parents. After all, their motto had become
“Horde equals family”.